Using a “Messy” Problem as a Departmental Assessment of Undergraduates’ Ability to Think Like Psychologists

ABSTRACT: This article presents a case study of faculty members in a psychology department whose shared questions about pedagogy and learning informed a data-driven curricular review and revision using an open-ended assessment that privileged deep learning. The authors describe the development of this assessment and how its results across the arc of the major led to a revision of the department’s curriculum, including the creation of new courses that focused on developing students’ abilities to “think like psychologists.” The study indicates that faculty intuitions of potential problems in student learning can be successfully assessed and then addressed through curricular changes.